Tourism in Norway - Essay Example

Tourism in Norway Tourism can be described as travel from one geographical area to another in accomplishment of recreational desires, leisure, educational purposes or business issues. In some cases, tourism has been seen a kind of sporting activity especially when the participants travel for recreational and leisure purposes. Tourism involves visits to certain geographical features and fantastic scenes that exist in the world. Tourists participating in tourism may be individuals from international spectrum or internal citizens living within the country that is the tourist destination. Tourism activities have huge benefits to the economy of the countries that act as the preferred tourist destination. Upon visits to various regions to see the fantastic scenes, tourists make huge payment for the access to the particular regions of preference. The collected tax from the tourism activity passes to the governments of the individual destinations, who ultimately use the revenues in financing various national projects for the benefits of the entire citizens. Norway is one such country with exemplary and attractive tourists’ destinations. The Norwegian tourism sites have earned the country superb income that has been used in financing and purchasing development programs of national importance. The history tourism in Norway illuminates the British lords as the first fishing tourists to visit the country (Aas 282). The British lords were mainly interested in fishing of salmons that inhabited most of the Norwegian rivers. Aas (282) elucidates that the current trend of marine fishing in Norway has been dominated by the German tourists who buy fishing trips from the Norwegian and foreign tour operators. According to Aas (282), most of the fishing tourists within Europe travel to particular tourisms destinations in Norway by the use of cars and planes. Currently, most of the tourists travelling from Germany to Norway have been using special fishing charters. Aas (282) confirms that most of the fishing tourists visiting Norway prefer catching the halibut, cod and coalfish species. Aas (282) further reports that most of the fish caught during fishing tourism are meant for consumption by the individual tourists during their stay in the tourism destination. It is worth noting that most of the tourism fishing in the Norwegian marine waters is not regulated and this has resulted to dilapidation of the fishing grounds. Aas (282) further reports that fish tourism in Norway reaches its peak especially during summer seasons when the temperatures are high. Fish tourism sport in Norway mainly involves sailing of small boat provided by the tour operators and takes place near the shore of the coast. Aas (282) adds that some tourism operators provide larger boats to their clients who sail to conduct fishing in deep seas away from the shore. In move to ensure security and keep track of the fishing tourists on board, most boats area fitted with GPS and echo sounders that helps in detection of any impediment. Fishing tourism in Norway has developed at an alarming rate with about 1000 companies carrying operations along the coastlines of Norway, with well-equipped facilities for comfortable tourism. Aas (282) discloses that families mainly own most of the fishing tourism companies along the coast of Norway. According to Aas (282), marine fishing tourism in Norway is well developed along the southern parts of coast with anticipated future growth along the northern parts of the coast. In the views of Aas (282), fishing tourism in Norway has been a stable source of employment opportunities considering the fact that it takes place through all seasons of the year. Fishing tourism in Norway has enabled the local gather deep information and knowledge on how to utilize fishing infrastructure to commercially exploit the fishing bays. According to Slavastog, the Norwegian government has structured efficient plan to encourage domestic tourism (14). It is also evident that tourism in general ranks at the second position in the national top income generating avenues after the oil industry, which tops that list. With reference to Norwegian financial statement of 1996, reports that tourism industry recorded income revenue of $ 2.3billion. Tourism in Norway has been recorded to offer job opportunities to over 18% of the total working population. With reference to the statistics collected from a research into the Norway tourism, Slavastog confirms that most German tourists travelled to spend their holiday in Norway due to attractive culture and food stuffs (13). Domestic tourism in Norway involves even the work related tourism that engages individual workmates with specific goals to achieve in a certain research (Slavastog 11). According to Country guide 360.com, Norway has got attractive natural scene and environmental conditions that acquaints the country its attractiveness and preference by many tourists. In the reports of Country guide 360.com, Norway has long coastline that stretches to 20,000 kilometres. The coastline of Norway is slightly deep and has attractive fjords sandwiched between mountains thereby enhancing the beauty of the scene. The southern part of Norway exhibits attractive tourism cites with rolls of mountains and high hills, colourful forests, rivers and valleys. Country guide.com confirms that the snow capped mountains and hills offer attractive and impressive sites for sports like ice skidding and skating games. Climbing on top of the highly raised hills offers an impressive and attractive view of nature that involves hilly lakes and sheer valleys. Fig 1.0. A stretch of the coastal fjord in Norway, Photograph: Courtesy of Country guide.com 360 Fig. 1.1. Sognefjord Skiing ground, Photograph: Courtesy of Visitnorway.com, 2011 Oslo city has got impressive museums that offer good tourists sites especially for individuals who are on a learning tour. Country guide.com 360 reports that Oslo shelters the Thor Heyerdahl Kon-tik Museum, Viking Ship and the Munch Museums. Oslo also contains the Kongelige Slott, which is a historic site where the Royal Palace was built. Furthermore, Oslo city contains the Akershus Fortress, which is the historic centre for military events. Country guide.com 360 further discloses that the city of Bergen houses the World Heritage Site with beautiful wooden warehouses that stretches along the harbour. Bergen is also a centre for scenic seven mountains that stresses the reasons for touring Norway. Furthermore, Trondheim the former capital of Norway fences the Nidaros Cathedral and the Ringve Museum that contains historic musical instruments with rich information about the nature of the ancient musical system. In addition, the 28 medieval wooden churches of Norway provide beautiful historic scene rich in information about the old days architect in Norway. Moreover, the existence of the Urnes Stave Church built by Sognefjord in 1130 AD offers explicit historic coverage under the UNESCO and World Heritage Sites. The city of Skien is another tourist attraction centre with historic information of Ibsen who was a literary play writer. The city also enjoys inflow of tourists who desire to see the childhood home of Ibsen that offers rough understanding of his characters. Norwegian tourist attraction sites also encompass the Voringsfossen Waterfall that offers spectacular tourism scene. Another impressive and unique waterfall is the Mardalfossen, which is 30 metres high thereby qualifying to be the world’s longest drop. Fig 1.3. Photograph illustrating nature of waterfall in Norway. Courtesy of Country guide.com 360 The mid night sun during summer in the Northern part of Norway provides a perfect and impressive tourists attraction site. Additionally, Norway hosts Jostendalsbreen that is the largest European glaciers that provides splendid hiking ground and large national park. Traditional folk culture, music and dances held during summer at the Norske Folk museum display events that tourist attractive in nature. In conclusion, Norwegian tourism presents its own unique and exemplary features that worth appreciation and acknowledgement. Fishing tourism that involves sailing of boats and canoes in the marine water has obtained great popularity in Norway. It is also vital to mention that Norwegian tourism has of great benefit to the economic stability of the country. Tourism in general has led to the creation of employment opportunities in transport sector, hotel and hostess management and tour operators. Norway also boasts of its attractive and immensely beautiful landscapes and vegetations that provide attractive sceneries for tourists. The mid night sun during summer and the attractive historical sites are the actual tourists’ attraction sites in Norway. The snow-capped and rolling mountains also offer exemplary skidding grounds for hiking sports. Work cited Aas, Oyster. Global Challenges in Recreational Fisheries. Hoboken, NJ; John Wiley and Sons Publishing, 2008. Print. Country guide.com 360. Norway: Nature at its best. Web, 2010. November 17, 2011 from http://www.countryguides360.com/norway-tourist-attractions.html Eligh, Jason, Richard Welford, and Bjarne, Ytterhus. "The Production of Sustainable Tourism: Concepts and Examples from Norway." Sustainable Development. Vol. 10.4 (2002): 223-227 Svalastog, Sondre. The Main challenges facing Leisure time Tourism in Norway. Web, 2008. November 17, 2011 from http://brage.bibsys.no/hil/bitstream/URN:NBN:no-bibsys_brage_16431/1/forskrapp_137_08_hil.pdf Read More